US govt hacking into Huawei servers since 2009, accuses China

Hong Kong, Sep 21 (IANS) As the US and China tussle escalates over technology, Beijing has accused Washington of allegedly hacking Huawei's servers and conducting cyber attacks to steal critical data since 2009, the media reported.

According to Nikkei Asia, China's Ministry of State Security posted on its official WeChat account, revealing “key despicable methods by US intelligence agencies in cyberespionage and theft."

The post accused the US government of hacking into Huawei servers.

"In 2009, the Office of Tailored Access Operations started to infiltrate servers at Huawei's headquarters and continued conducting such surveillance operations," the post read.

The US Department of State was yet to comment on the Chinese accusation.

The post further said that China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center extracted spyware called ‘Second Date.’

The ‘Second Date’ malware is “cyber-espionage malware developed by the US National Security Agency, which operates covertly in thousands of networks in many countries around the world."

With this spyware, “the US had obtained control over tens of thousands of devices and stolen a substantial amount of high-value data," the ministry said in the post.

Amid the escalating rivalry between the US and China, earlier this month, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan revealed that the Joe Biden government seeks to know more about the new, ‘made in China’ Huawei chipset used in the Mate 60 Pro smartphone.

Later, the Xi Jinping government reportedly barred officials from using Apple iPhones at work. The government later took a U-turn, saying it allows all foreign devices, including Apple, to continue to be used by people in the country.

Now, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said that there is no evidence to suggest that Chinese conglomerate Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced semiconductors at scale.